Popular

July 12, 2008

Conference Focuses on Trees: Coast Conservation Efforts to Be Honored

by Sam Savage

By Kat Bergeron, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Jul. 12--Trees are vital to a healthy community, a point driven home as coastal counties face storm rebuilding and new development.

So when Bay St. Louis writer and artist Ellis Anderson convinces people to literally hug trees, and when a town like Pass Christian hones its tree friendliness, the Mississippi Urban Forest Council takes note.

They will join Gulf Coast Conservation Corps, credited with planting 30,000 trees, and a dozen other Coast people and organizations singled out for statewide awards during the July 22-24 Mississippi Green Infrastructure and Urban Forest Conference in Hattiesburg.

The conference, open to the public and community leaders, offers workshops by five national experts on "community forestry," the new term for urban green spaces and trees that surround where we live, work and play.

"This is a chance to learn the newest trends for any community interested in emphasizing 'green,'

" said Donna V. Yowell, council executive director.

"We're bringing in the experts to help the Coast and the rest of Mississippi focus on the use of natural resources, green spaces and trees in all developments and buildings, whether commercial, residential or governmental."

Yowell said one of the biggest challenges is the 90 percent federal government cuts in urban forestry grants municipalities and states have depended on in the past.

"The future of community forestry is going to be based on local leaders and property owners," she said. "That's why this conference and what it teaches is so important."